Dec. 17, 2000 - So, you can't believe the Denver Nuggets would boycott practice while their coach, Dan Issel, waited for them in an empty gym - just because he yells at them too much? Then you're obviously a newcomer to Nuggets nation.

When news of the mini-mutiny broke early last week, it merely was the latest chapter in a sad story of a franchise gone wrong. Most longtime, long-suffering Denver pro basketball fans probably shook their heads and thought, "Typical Nuggets." And with good reason: They've seen worse.

Across the past 15 years, fans of the Nuggets have seen a franchise plummet from the top of the Midwest Division to the bottom of the NBA. They've seen too many owners, too many general managers, too many coaches - and not enough victories.

They've seen a team that went to the playoffs nine consecutive years in the 1980s get to the postseason only twice in the '90s. They've seen the Nuggets chase the worst record in NBA history before rallying in the final two weeks of the 1997-98 season to finish 11-71, just two victories from infamy.

They've seen some things that made them laugh:

Former team owner Bertram Lee was evicted from his downtown condo for failing to pay the rent.

Doug Moe, the winningest coach in franchise history, showed up wearing a Hawaiian shirt to announce his firing and then toasted the occasion with champagne.

They've also seen other things that made them want to cry:

The Nuggets wasted two 1986 first-round draft picks on Mo Martin and Mark Alarie, neither of whom left his mark in Denver, and then wasted the overall No. 8 pick in 1991 on Mark Macon, who never became the shooter the Nuggets needed.

In September 1990, the Nuggets fired Moe and hired Paul Westhead, who produced a paltry 44 wins in two seasons.

In a span of one month, the Nuggets traded Jalen Rose to Indiana and then allowed three-time all-star center Dikembe Mutombo to leave as a free agent and go to Atlanta, where he signed a not-unreasonable, five-year contract worth $57 million.

And they've seen things they didn't understand. Remember former overall No. 3 pick Chris Jackson? He gained 30 pounds, then lost 35 while fasting, changed his name to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and attracted national attention by refusing to stand during the pregame playing of the national anthem.

"It's amazing what they've gone through since then," Moe said, referring to his firing, which many knowledgeable observers insist contributed mightily to the fall of the Nuggets.

Indeed, anyone searching for the reasons the Nuggets are at the bottom should go right to the top.

"They've had so many changes with coaches, management, players," said Moe, who coached the Nuggets from 1981-90, compiled a 432-357 record, won two Midwest Conference titles and steered them into the playoffs each of his last nine years, including a trip to the Western Conference finals in 1985. "They lost all sense of identity. They just lost it all. Then they didn't know where to go or how to build it back up."

All too often, the organization was in a state of flux.

In the 1990s alone, the Nuggets were owned by three groups, had four general managers and went through eight coaches.

"It all starts with ownership," said Pete Babcock, the Nuggets' general manager from 1988-90 and now GM of the Atlanta Hawks. "That's who sets the stage for how you're going to operate. If you have a strong owner, that trickles down."

And until now - E. Stanley Kroenke purchased the Nuggets, NHL's Colorado Avalanche and the Pepsi Center for $450 million last summer - the Nuggets haven't had a solid owner willing to make a long-term commitment to the franchise.

From 1976-82, the Nuggets were owned by a group of local businessmen who formed Nuggets Management Inc. But after the 1981-82 season, the group struggled to produce the necessary funding and the franchise was in jeopardy.

But along came B.J. "Red" McCombs, who rode to Denver's rescue - at the behest of Moe's wife, Jane - after then-GM Carl Scheer informed Moe the ownership group was out of money. McCombs now owns the NFL's Minnesota Vikings.

"Jane called Red that weekend," Moe said, recalling another colorful chapter in Nuggets lore. "Red flew in, Carl met with Red at the airport and Red bought the team."

Three years later, McCombs sold the Nuggets to Sidney Shlenker, who kept the team until 1989.

"You couldn't ask for an owner who was more caring or more concerned with everybody in the organization," Babcock said.

Shlenker sold the team to a Chicago-based group headed by Lee and Peter Bynoe. The sale was orchestrated by NBA commissioner David Stern, who was pushing for more minority ownership in the league. But he later had to bring in Comsat Video Enterprises to financially salvage the transaction.

Still, the new owners made several poor decisions - Moe was fired, Westhead was hired and former Seattle coach Bernie Bickerstaff replaced Babcock as the Nuggets' GM - and the franchise began to founder.

The once-proud Nuggets became a bad basketball joke.

The thrown-together ownership group provided little, if any, direction. And Bickerstaff almost singlehandedly drove the Nuggets to ruin.

It was Bickerstaff who fired Moe in September 1990, after Moe was permitted by the owners - before Bickerstaff's hiring - to handle the draft that June.

"The funny part about the whole thing was they were interviewing GMs, guys that were my friends, and the first question they asked them was, 'Can you fire Doug Moe?'" Moe said. "They went through a bunch of guys. I knew they were getting rid of me."

It was Bickerstaff who drafted Macon, a first-round bust, and Efthimios Rentzias, a European player Bickerstaff never had seen play and who stood 6 feet 7, not 6-11 as Bickerstaff had thought.

It was Bickerstaff who impatiently traded Rose, whose talent has blossomed with the Pacers, rather than nurture his development.

It was Bickerstaff who decided Mutombo wasn't a franchise-type player and wasn't worth more than $8 million per season. So, unable to find a trade and get something in return, he allowed Mutombo to walk away as a free agent.

"To me, that was the big one," said Bill Hanzlik, who coached the Nuggets through their 1997-98 disaster while Mutombo was helping the Hawks win 57 games and becoming the NBA's defensive player of the year. "Even today, Atlanta could trade him for a bunch of first-round picks. And Denver got zippo for him.

"Wow, you just can't do that. With expansion, you've got younger and younger kids coming in, and there's not as much talent in the league. There's not enough talent. So when you do have it, you don't lose it."

Bickerstaff said at the time that he believed the Nuggets could not meet Mutombo's price and still make other moves necessary to make the team a winner. But it seemed everyone else in the organization knew it was a mistake to let Mutombo go.

In fact, Charlie Lyons, CEO of team owner Ascent Entertainment, said the Nuggets could have paid to keep Mutombo.

"How can you let your most valuable asset leave the company and not get anything in return?" Issel was quoted as saying after Bickerstaff's biggest blunder. "It's ludicrous. Dikembe's the best in the league at what he does. Maybe you can knock his offensive skills, but defending, rebounding and blocking shots, he's the best in the league.

"It will be into the next century before the Nuggets recover."

And he might be right - especially if they continue to make costly mistakes.

Do you realize the Nuggets, if properly managed, could have put together a team that included Mutombo, Rose, Nick Van Exel, Antonio McDyess, Anthony Mason, Chauncey Billups, Danny Fortson, Brian Williams and Raef LaFrentz? Instead, they've got a $43 million player, Tariq Abdul-Wahad, sitting on their bench.

"There's something wrong there," Hanzlik said. "You can't say this guy can't play. Either you do your research or whatever. It's a waste. You've got to spend money, which they seem willing to do, but now the (salary) cap is gone."

The Nuggets have "squandered the talent they've had," Hanzlik added.

True, LaPhonso Ellis' injury in September 1994 was a sizeable setback. He suffered a stress fracture in his right kneecap while playing a 1-on-1 game against teammate Bryant Stith at the Highlands Ranch Recreation Center and played in only six games that season, needing two years to become a productive performer again.

Still, there are many who say Ellis never has regained the pre-injury form that prompted Charles Barkley to call him the NBA's "next great power forward."

And, clearly, the Nuggets still haven't recovered from the loss of both El lis and Mutombo, who gave the team a formidable 1-2 punch on its front line.

The Nuggets did make a playoff run in the spring of 1994, knocking off Seattle in the first round and pushing Utah to a seventh game in the Western Conference semifinals. But Bickerstaff, given too much authority and operating with no real system of checks and balances, foolishly tried to fix something that wasn't broke.

Even Lyons had to admit: "He exercised a fatal executive flaw. He surrounded himself with people who say "yes,' and he had the good fortune of very patient ownership. I probably wasn't comfortable enough with myself and my role to ask questions after we beat Seattle in 1994 - questions like, 'Why are we messing with this?'"

The result? The Nuggets are a mess.

Yes, they've shown signs of progress since Issel took over the basketball operation in 1998 and returned to the bench last season. They won 35 games last season and already have won 11 this season, with McDyess and Van Exel pro viding an inside-outside attack.

But, clearly, something still is missing.

The Nuggets, who share the Denver market with the playoff-bound Denver Broncos of the NFL and the Avalanche as well as with the suddenly compelling Colorado Rockies of baseball, still lack an identity.

"The one key ingredient that's still there is the fans, although this last little incident may have tampered with that," Hanzlik said. "The fans are tremendous, as long as you give them something. But the Nuggets haven't given them something for a while."

Denver embraced Moe's Nuggets during the 1980s because, despite their lack of size, they played hard, they had fun and genuinely seemed to care about each other. They were a team in every sense of the word.

"Great chemistry," said Wayne Cooper, the Nuggets' center from 1984-89 and now an assistant GM with the Sacramento Kings. "We didn't have the most talent in the league, but we had a group of guys who didn't want to let their teammates down. So we came to play every night, and that enabled us to overcome a lot.

"The fans picked up on that, too. It was a very special feeling. But over the years, that feeling disappeared. And it's going to take time - and the right people - to get it back."

Cooper said several former players, whom he did not want to identify, were hurt by the Nuggets' refusal to "keep them in the family"
after their playing days were done.

"I don't know why it didn't happen," Cooper said. "Maybe it's because they've had so much change in the ownership and front office, but a lot of guys wanted to see some loyalty from the club. But it never came."

Cooper believes that lack of loyalty, that lack of continuity, has contributed to the Nuggets' decline.

"The key to success in this league is getting players, and the best way to get players is to become a place where players want to play," Cooper said. "Look at Sacramento. A few years ago, nobody wanted to play here. But we went out and got Chris Webber and Jason Williams, and now everybody wants to play here. We've got free agents calling us."

Colorado has become a popular place to live, but the Nuggets haven't yet become a desired destination. But that could change.

"It takes time, it takes work and it takes a little luck," said Mike D'Antoni, who coached the Nuggets during the 1998-99 season and now is an assistant with the Portland Trail Blazers. "Once you get down, it's not easy to get back up - unless you're lucky enough to hit the lottery with the No. 1 pick and get a franchise player.

"We took the first step when I was there, trying to get them going in the right direction. They took the second step last year, winning 35 games. Now they need to take the next step and get back to the playoffs.

"They've got McDyess and Van Exel and enough good, young talent to be optimistic, so you don't want to panic and blow it up now. They've got a couple of really good players to build around. They're winning games at home. Now it's just a matter of playing tougher and being mentally tough enough to win on the road. It looks like they're moving in the right direction."

But another change could be coming. The day after the Nuggets boycotted practice, Kroenke met with Issel and the team and said the coach's job is safe - at least for the rest of the season. But the fate of Issel, who's also the Nuggets' president, remains the subject of rampant speculation.

Certainly, the boycott didn't help Issel's position, no matter how much he tried to spin it.

"That's probably the first thing we've done as a team this year,"
Issel said in a thinly veiled attempt to make light of a dark situation.

Of course, winning changes everything.

If the Nuggets start winning - and win enough games to get to the playoffs - the boycott becomes the turning point in a season on the brink, maybe the turning point for a franchise on the rise.

If the Nuggets lose too much and fail yet again to reach the postseason, the franchise's future is in Kroenke's hands.

"You expect them, at some point, to get better and that things will turn around," Moe said. "But I have no idea what this guy (Kroenke) is like."

Kroenke is supposed to be different. He's supposed to be in this game for the long haul. He's supposed to care about basketball. He's supposed to care about this team.

That's what he said when he bought the Nuggets.

But as longtime fans of the Nuggets will tell you, talk is cheap. They've heard it all before.

For them, seeing is believing.

Denver Post sports writer Jim Armstrong contributed to this story.

Copyright 2000 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

1. June 17, 1986: The Nuggets used their two first-round draft picks, Nos. 16 and 18 overall, to select St. Joseph's guard Mo Martin and Duke forward Mark Alarie. Among the players the Nuggets passed up were Scott Skiles, Mark Price, Dennis Rodman and Jeff Hornacek. Martin played two undistinguished seasons with the Nuggets before suffering a knee injury. Alarie averaged 7.9 points as a rookie, and then was traded to Washington.

2. Halloween night 1986: Power forward Calvin Natt suffered a torn Achilles' tendon. The injury deprived the Nuggets of their enforcer and made them vulnerable on the boards.

3. July 10, 1989: Sidney Shlenker sold the Nuggets to a Chicago-based group headed by businessmen Bertram Lee and Peter Bynoe. NBA commissioner David Stern, who helped orchestrate the sale, had to bring in Comsat Video Enterprises in November to salvage the transaction.

4. June 22, 1990: The Nuggets traded the Nos. 9 and 15 picks in the draft to Miami for the No. 3 pick, and used that pick to select Louisiana State guard Chris Jackson, who became Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. The Nuggets passed up Jayson Williams, Toni Kukoc, Cedric Ceballos, Dee Brown, Elden Campbell and Dennis Scott.

5. July 11, 1990: The Nuggets hired former Seattle coach Bernie Bickerstaff to be their general manager. He made several questionable moves that contributed to the Nuggets' decline.

6. Sept. 6, 1990: Nuggets coach Doug Moe announced his firing, and then toasted the occasion with champagne. He guided the Nuggets to nine consecutive playoff appearances and compiled a 432-357 (.548) record. No other Nuggets coach has won more games.

7. June 11, 1991: The Nuggets traded point guard Michael Adams, the 19th pick in the draft and future considerations for the eighth pick, then used it to select Mark Macon. The former Temple star spent three seasons with the Nuggets and never proved to be the player the team thought it was getting.

8. Sept. 11, 1994: Power forward LaPhonso Ellis suffered a stress fracture in his right kneecap while playing a 1-on-1 game against teammate Bryant Stith at the Highlands Ranch Recreation Center. Ellis played in only six games during the 1994-95 season and didn't didn't fully recover until the '96-97 season.

9. June 13, 1996: The Nuggets traded Jalen Rose, their No. 1 pick in the 1994 draft, to Indiana in a deal that involved four players and two first-round picks. Rose now is considered one of the NBA's rising stars.

10. July 15, 1996: The Nuggets refused to pay Dikembe Mutombo what he wanted and allowed the three-time NBA all-star to leave as a free agent. When he signed a five-year, $57 million contract with Atlanta, the Nuggets received no compensation.